the regrettable kin
by Skyla Ladona
Summary: This will be a series of short stories featuring different characters in the Inuyasha series. The first story is based on Sesshomaru and his two year old half brother. The second is based on his relationship with his mother when he was seven. REVIEW!
1. Half Breed Half Brother

Author's Notes: I do not own Inuyasha. I would very much like to, but sadly I do not.

I wrote this first story, which I titled _regrettable kin,_ last year. A few of my reviewers have asked if I was going to write anymore chapters. I got the idea from one person to start a series of short stories rather than a large, ongoing story. Short stories are easier to write and they include only a few hours of commitment rather than months or years of it.

These stories will be about different characters in the Inuyasha world and are definitely not going to be chronological. Mostly, at first, I will be featuring Sesshomaru. Hopefully I will feature Kagome, Inuyasha, Izayoi, and, if possible, Inuyasha's father.

I hope you like this collection of stories.

-Skyla Ladona

**Regrettable Kin**

_Half Breed Half Brother_

)(

There was that child again. One could tell instantly what it was. A hanyo. The brat-ling smelled of both human and demon, a mixture of the two, to create this big eyed, little mutt gazing up at him from his sitting place on the ground as he made a mud pie with his little fair skinned hands. Even at the age of two, he could already do many things by himself, even run pretty well. This made him a problem nearly every week. On the nights when there was no moon, when he appeared to be no more than a human, he was even more of a nuisance. Without his powers be was easily bored, for it was essential to keep him indoors where no enemy would see his vulnerability.

Sesshomaru glared down at the toddler sitting in the moonlight and growled quietly in annoyance when the little thing took a flower from ground and promptly began to eat it. "You realize that is not food," he murmured.

The child still watched him, silently eating, and held up the stem to offer him the last petal with giggle.

The demon lord internally shuddered to think what would occur if his yokai associates ever discovered that he had a hanyo for a half brother. It was a well-known fact, and the target of amusement, that his father, the demon lord of the west before him, had fallen in love with a mortal woman named Izayoi. What came out of that love was this child called Inuyasha.

The child rolled over, stood, and began to prowl about, snatching at moths and the occasional insect, growling and babbling as he went. Sesshomaru followed at a distance. It was not a wonder that the child had wandered away from home again, a small village in the east. The village tolerated the hanyo and Izayoi, ignoring them most of the time, especially the woman. She, in a way, was a greater outcast than her son was. It was said that she betrayed her fiancé, Takemaru of Setsuna, when she let herself be lured into an affair by the demon. Sesshomaru had no wish to protect woman's honor but he knew clearly that she had never been this mortal man's fiancé. His father would not sink so low to steal an already promised woman, nor would he force one.

Still, Sesshomaru had despised the union. His father had fallen in love before with mortals when he was younger. That was to be expected. He had been a mere child then, attracted to flowers that bloomed quickly and died just as fast. However, at the peak of his greatness, the demon lord had somehow fallen in love with another of these creatures and willingly died to protect her. Sesshomaru remembered scolding him for it once, craving for a reaction, a reproach, that would lead to the fight he had been waiting for all his life, the one that would determine who was lord of the west, the father or the son. The Inu no Taisho merely looked at Sesshomaru with surprise and laughed, too self controlled to lose his legendary, unrivaled temper with his son.

Little Inuyasha sang a song as he skipped, half the words incoherent, his bare feet getting dirtier with each step. His mother must have given up forcing him to wear shoes. Sesshomaru could not help remembering that he had refused shoes at that age as well, though his mother was not as lenient.

_Nor would she ever lose sight of me, _he thought, watching the unsupervised child from a distance. With his sensitive hearing he could hear the human mother calling the boy's name. He would not be surprised if his father's old, annoying friend Myoga the flea was searching as well.

Myoga needed to improve on his skills. Had the old flea known _he_ had found Inuyasha, Myoga would make sure he never lost sight of the boy again.

Sesshomaru found the boy climbing a tree, his little claws digging into the bark. When he slipped he bit onto a tree branch and wiggled his body into position so he could hook his leg over another branch. Sesshomaru could not help but speak again. "Too slow. You climb like a human."

The toddler hooked his other leg over the branch and let go, swinging himself back and forth upside down with a laugh, long, tangled silver hair swaying. A big grin filled his face. "Tree," he babbled.

"Yes, it is a tree. And you are a fool, worthless half-breed. Stop laughing. Be angry when you are insulted."

Inuyasha climbed again, this time a little faster, babbling about trees as he went. Sesshomaru looked away, glaring at the ground. He would endure just a little more of this nonsense. After that he would end it all. He did not know how much more of that child he could bear.

Inuyasha stood atop one of the highest branches, looking out over the moonlit landscape, and looked down at Sesshomaru. He called a word that sounded slightly like "brother" and called it again . . . and again . . . and again.

"Speak to me when you learn how to do so," he answered.

Inuyasha laughed and leapt. His leap took him from one tree to the next one a few feet away. He leapt again onto another. Now greatly amused he continued this till he was racing along the treetops, laughing. As usual, Sesshomaru followed . . . and sped up suddenly, eyes narrowing.

Inuyasha leapt onto the largest tree in the forest and bounced up and down on branches, yelling, "Hop! Hop!"

A voice rumbled deeply. "What is this?" Inuyasha froze, growling softly, and sniffed. One of the tree's great branches wrapped tightly around him like a serpent. He clawed at it, crying out in shock and surprise. He never knew trees could move. He slashed and bit at it furiously.

The tree demon studied him with hollow eyes, heedless to his efforts to free himself. "Hanyo," he murmured aloud. "Not a rich meal but it will do."

"There will be no meal." The branch slowly closing around the child was slashed through. Sesshomaru caught the child in one arm, gazing upon the tree demon with emotionless eyes. Inuyasha half hid his face in his brother's shoulder, gripping the fur draped over his shoulder.

The tree demon's aura glowed red with his anger. "How dare you. Don't you know who I am?"

"No, and do not need to." With a father as powerful as the Inu no Taisho of the West Sesshomaru-sama could care less about a low class demon such as this.

Inuyasha growled, trying to struggle out of his brother's grasp to attack the demon tree, his surprise gone.

Sesshomaru's response angered the tree even more. His roots tore the ground apart as the reached for the two brothers.

Sesshomaru drew forth a whip of green light from his fingers and slashed through the tree in only an instant. The demon tree, perhaps thousands of years older than Sesshomaru, vanished with a death cry in a shower of green light and ancient splinters.

"No one will kill the child but me," he vowed softly.

Inuyasha leapt out of his arms, looking around for the tree, bemused, and turned to look at Sesshomaru with anger, as though he had been supposed to kill the demon first. He walked promptly up to him and took hold of his wrist in little hands, examining it all over to see where the whip of light had gone. His interest gone, the little child hugged his arm. Sesshomaru, watching him, said nothing.

"Inuyasha!"

The woman walked into the clearing, looking about, and stared upon Sesshomaru with widened eyes. Visibly she hid her fear and bowed. He could see her tremble. "Sesshomaru-sama."

Inuyasha looked up, letting go of the demon lord's arm. "Mama!" he cried and ran to her hugging her around the middle. He pointed, "Big tree. Bad tree. Sesshoma_moo _smash it."

Izayoi looked at her departed lover's eldest son, surprised, and averted his intense gold eyes humbly. She had always been shy and nervous when near him. "I suppose that is what I heard. You saved him. I thank you, Sesshomaru-sama."

Sesshomaru did not answer, just simply looked at her, eyes shining in the darkness. Seeming to have found what he was looking for in her face he turned. "You should look after him more carefully."

He started away. "Wait," she called. He would have kept walking, had it not been for the sudden, unknown emotion in her voice. He turned, glancing at her sidelong. Her eyes gazed at him sadly. "Please . . . I do not wish for any ill will to be between us."

"There is nothing between us at all," he answered. "There was none and will never be."

She lowered her head. "Then if that is so I only hope you continue to watch over him as you have these last two years . . . It means so much to know you are there for him."

In the same calm, emotionless tone, he replied, "The boy is a nuisance, worse than I was at his age. Woman, this is the fifth night in two months that he has escaped from your grasp. He is rebellious, loud, barefooted, and disregards everyone and respects no one. If he is this troublesome now he will be a terror when he grows older."

She nodded, head still lowered. Inuyasha was walking off again to explore. Sesshomaru glared down upon him, his patience nearly spent. The child halted, caught off guard by his brother's anger, and risked another step towards the woods, and then another.

Indeed, the boy would be a terror when he grew older.

Catching sight of her son she smiled. In her expression was a mixture of sorrow, joy, and love. Sesshomaru had rarely seen her smile since his father died. "What is it?" he asked, curiosity too great for him to keep silence.

She looked up at him. "Sometimes . . . I am glad he is this way."

"To think that way is dangerous."

"Our lives are dangerous already. Making an obedient child out of my son will not change the fact that there are some demons and humans alike that would sooner see him gone. And even if I tried it would be all in vain. Because he . . ." She looked away from the dog demon. In the dark he watched her eyes well with silent tears she thought he could not see.

The demon lord raised his head slowly to gaze at the glistening moon. "He is his father's son," he quietly finished.

No amount of teaching would rid the unmistakable thirst for rebellion from Inuyasha's eyes, the same thirst that thrived within his father's veins. Perhaps it was why Myoga, wherever the old demon was, loved the taste of their blood. The departed Inu no Taisho rebelled against the old traditions and begot a son with a mortal woman. He was loud, preferred to walk barefoot whenever he could, and was unafraid to show emotion with his thick, dark eyebrows, his flashing gold eyes.

Inuyasha, a hanyo, had no right to be more like his father than _he_ was.

Sesshomaru departed, leaving the woman and child behind, much to his satisfaction. He did not know how much more of the boy he could take.

"Sesshomaru-sama!" Jaken, his demon minion, raced into the clearing bearing the unwieldy Staff of Two Heads. "I can not find him! Oh, my lord, I—"

Sesshomaru stepped on him. "I already have," he said, walking past Jaken's prone and twitching form.

Jaken sprang back to his feet and muttered. "Why is it you had to find him anyway? It is because of him that your father is dead, my lord. And that woman. She is to blame for it all! Was it a last request from your father to protect him?"

"I do this by choice, not by his," Sesshomaru answered firmly.

Jaken opened his mouth to ask more questions but saw that Sesshomaru was walking away. Tears of admiration filled his eyes for his mysterious master and he hurried after him. "Sesshomaru-sama! I will follow you to the ends of the earth!" he cried. It wasn't the first time he had done so either.

After a few minutes of travel the demon lord clenched his clawed hand till it shook, a vision of his brother before his eyes in the darkness lit only by silver moonlight. It would take only a few more years till he could end this regrettable suffering. Only a few more years and Sesshomaru would truly see if this unruly off spring of his father could ever present a challenge to him. Until then he would watch over the child his father had died to protect.


	2. Lessons on Humans from a Mother

**Regrettable Kin **

_Lessons on Humans from a Mother_

)(

The young seven-year-old yokai noble read softly, sitting in the corner of the square room. He was dressed in a white kimono with a delicate red and violet flower pattern across one shoulder. The yokai's silver white hair brushed his small shoulders. He tapped his small feet once or twice on the floor as he read from the story scroll.

_There was once an honorable samurai who had a wife and three children. He was the lord and master of a peaceful village in a green and fertile stretch of land overflowing with streams of clear water. To uphold his honor bound oath of loyalty to the emperor he left his peaceful home to go to battle one cold winter. The wife waited patiently and in hope for his return, longing for his presence at her side once again. _

_Fate would not allow this. In a bout of terrible destiny the great samurai was wounded and laid dying on the decimated battlefield among the bodies of his fellow countrymen. Low and behold, he was offered a second chance at life by a strange being. However, in return, the honorable samurai would have to give up something. In an act of desperation, for he longed to see his wife once again with his own eyes, he complied with no regard or thought of what might happen. _

_The strange being gave the samurai new life. The warrior left the battlefield in blooded and torn armor and traveled home on foot to find his lover. _

"Sesshomaru?"

The young yokai looked up in fright and tried to hide the scroll. The tall yokai lady walked into the square room and looked down at him with golden eyes. Ikuna-sama's beautiful, pale features frowned ever so slightly. "Give me that," she murmured. Her melodic voice was cold as frost. Upon her forehead was a crescent moon. The dark, delicate stripes upon her cheeks mirrored. He was, in a sense, her look-alike in male form. It was easy to tell that she was Sesshomaru's mother, for he bore the same markings she did.

Sesshomaru stood and, almost shakily, handed her the scroll. She opened it and her golden eyes glanced at the words. She rolled it up. Her pale hand slapped him across the cheek loudly, leaving a red imprint. Sesshomaru held in a yelp, eyes welling with quiet tears though he bravely held them back. His mother would be angry if he broke into sobs.

"This is human literature. Trash. Filth. I have told you before to never read such indecency."

"Father gave—"

She gave him another slap, this one a little harder than the last. "While your father is off to war you are in my care and _will_ listen to my words." She tucked the scroll into the ribbon of her pale blue kimono and turned to leave the room. "Weapons practice will be at midday."

Young Sesshomaru watched her leave. After a moment he felt a tear escape his eye and he cursed his own weakness. Even now he still had trouble keeping his emotions in check. He found time and time again that it would be better to have none at all . . .

How he longed to have the story scroll back.

Father was friends with many different people. This list was not limited to yokai. The Taiyokai had a human scholar as a companion who sometimes gave him human weapons, showed him human relics, and historical scrolls. After learning that the Inu no Taisho's son Sesshomaru loved to read he passed on several story scrolls to him. However his mother had no love for them. She had already taken away two of them.

The story scroll he had just lost was his favorite, though he still had not read the whole story. It was painted red on the outside with in gold inscriptions. Father thought the story was slightly too mature for a seven year old, but Sesshomaru was old beyond his years.

Sesshomaru walked out of his room, keeping his mind clear and free of anger. If he frustrated too much over the loss of the scroll he would be giving into his emotions too much. The young yokai wandered off into the woods for a while, telling the servants where he would be. He wouldn't go far . . . and then, as he looked wonderingly at the sky, he wanted to do so more than anything. Go far, far away, as far as he could. He wanted to live out his life simply walking quietly in the woods, fields, and everywhere with no destination, no home to be tied down too, no commitment . . .

No mother . . .

Sesshomaru stopped walking, eyes widening.

Where had _this_ rebellious thought come from?

He heard a noise and looked up, surprised and caught off guard.

A little figure ran into the forest clearing, sobbing quietly, rubbing dark eyes bright with tears as she hiccupped and sniffled. She wore a little red kimono. A red ribbon tied a lock of her hair up so that it flopped up and down when she walked.

It was the first time Sesshomaru had ever seen a human girl. He had been told by his father that they looked very much like _they_ did. However, instead of silver white hair and claws these humans had black hair and smooth, clawless nails. Rather than golden eyes, human eyes were dark.

Sesshomaru tested his voice and spoke softly to the human. "Are you well?"

The little girl looked up, hiccupping, rubbing one eye while the other dark eye looked at him, her curiosity blunting the edge of her grief. "My cat," she whimpered. "I lost my cat."

Sesshomaru walked forwards. "What does it look like?"

"She's white and has a little bell on her collar."

The young dog demon stopped in front of her. "I will help you find her."

The little girl's eyes brightened with joy. "I'm Maemi," she said. She took his hand into hers.

The young yokai was amazed by how warm her palm was. Somehow he had believed, since humans were short lived and forever close to death, that human hands were cold and frosty to the touch. He smiled and gripped her hand gently in greeting. "I am Sesshomaru."

For much of that morning they searched, Sesshomaru testing the air with his nose, his ears listening for the tinkling of bells. The girl, now with a companion, lost her sorrow and looked determinedly for her lost animal, gripping onto his hand every now and then for silent reassurance. After a few minutes he noticed that she was openly staring at her, jaw dropped as she stared at his white silver hair, his delicately clawed hands. "You're beautiful," she said boldly.

He looked at her, confused. At the young age of seven Sesshomaru had no reason or the knowledge to believe that he was beautiful at all.

He turned about, hearing the soft tinkling of bells. There, walking down the path, was the cat.

"Niko!" Maemi cried.

The cat looked up and caught the smell of the dog demon. She hissed, fuzzy tail rose in alarm, and she clawed through the underbrush at a sprint. The girl yelled out in despair. "Here," Sesshomaru said quickly. He crouched so she could get onto his back and he leapt at a quick run after the little white cat. He raced through trees and bushes, holding the girl securely on his back. The cat scrambled through and around trees, her little silver bell tinkling. She made for an easy target.

He caught up and cornered the little cat by a large boulder. He set Maemi down and walked forward, reaching down a hand. The cat hissed and scratched it. Sesshomaru looked down at his own hand as his blood welled up from five deep scratch marks. Backed into a corner Niko glared at him rebelliously with angry blue eyes, longing for her momentary freedom . . .

Sesshomaru saw himself in that creature's eyes. A fellow being wishing for freedom, longing for independence.

Sesshomaru sighed quietly and sat down a few feet away from the furiously growling Niko, prepared to wait patiently for the creature to calm down. Maemi almost reached out to the cat but he stopped her hand. "Your friend is angry right now," he warned.

The girl understood and sat down beside Sesshomaru quietly, staring up at the pattern the sun made with the leaves and upon the ground. Together they listened to bird songs.

Niko settled down and became comfortable enough with Sesshomaru's smell to risk walking up to him. She sniffed his hand with her small pink nose, the one she had scratched, and rubbed her face against it, purring. Maemi smiled happily and the cat walked past the young dog demon to sit comfortably in her. The human girl stood up, holding the cat in her arms, and bowed her head in thanks to Sesshomaru. She looked up. "Do want to come home to meet my family?"

Sesshomaru pondered. His mother would be angry. He clenched a hand. _No._ He would _not_ let his mother control his life. isHis"Yes," he answered.

Maemi giggled happily and they walked, the girl humming a song. The sun watched, warming the air . . . the sunlight made Sesshomaru far too brave.

They walked into a small village and Maemi raced to a small house, the cat bouncing up and down in her arms. "Okasan!" she called. "Come out! Meet my friend!"

The woman walked out of the house through a door flap, shaking here head. "What is it now, child. Where have you been? I hope you haven't—" Her eyes settled upon Sesshomaru. Her face paled to the shade of rice paper, her dark eyes widening.

The little girl's smile left, the look on her mother's face frightening her. "Okasan? What is wrong?"

"Monster," the woman whispered. "You . . . you have brought a monster down upon us, foolish child! _Monster!_ **_Monster!_**"

Sesshomaru looked about for the monster, ready to defend the girl from any fiend that appeared. Upon looking up again he gasped as a large man strode purposefully out of the small home wielding a katana. The young yokai leaped high into the air away from the attack as the large sword came crashing down, the ground splitting from the impact. _"Get away from our daughter!"_ he yelled.

Sesshomaru landed a few feet away, skidding to a halt. He heard Maemi's voice scream as her father raised his katana once again to attack. The young demon's heart raced, his confusion and desperation growing with each second. The damning word of "monster" swirled through his mind. He left at a sprint towards the forest, taking to the trees.

The villagers chased after him with spears, swords, and bows, eyes narrowed in intense and unexplainable hatred. Through it all Sesshomaru wondered what he had ever done to deserve such a thing. He leapt from tree to tree without knowing where he went, heard arrows shrieking through the breeze passed his ears.

The forest ended before he realized and so did the land. He stood trembling at the edge of a tall cliff, his own death staring at his back in the form of a raging crowd and also staring up at him from a white, raging river that flowed hundreds of miles below.

A deep agony impaled his shoulder and he jerked backwards with a gasp, golden eyes widening in fear and surprise. The river below blurred, darkening as his blood spilled to the ground.

Ikuna-sama of the west caught her small son easily in one arm before he fell to his death, cursing at the sight of the arrow imbedded in his shoulder. The humans came to a halt, uneasy. The tall female yokai's golden eyes glared down at them all, narrowed murderously. A green whip of light came forth from her slender fingers.

She tore the humans apart . . .

)(

Sesshomaru opened his golden eyes and stared up at the ceiling of his chamber. The pain in his shoulder throbbed dully, nullified by pain killers. He sat up carefully. Only moments ago it seemed he had believed he would die. But how—?

He looked up and his eyes brightened. "Okasan!" he said weakly, overjoyed and welling up with love.

She looked up at him, her eyes emotionless, quiet. She took hold of his small chin between her thumb and forefinger. "I want you to remember this," she murmured, her voice melodic frost. "Remember this pain. This hurt . . . This is all you will ever feel if you associate yourself with humans again. Ignore them and you will live. Befriend them and you will certainly die."

She let go of his chin and grew silent once more as she applied an antiseptic to his wound.

Sesshomaru looked away from her, his hair screening his eyes so she could not see them.

It would be the last time he would ever look upon his mother with any expression of love.

)(

Ikuna of the West walked outside in the garden and saw her son silently reading from a scroll. She clenched her slender hands, eyes narrowing. How had he managed to take the story scroll back from her? She walked towards him.

Seven year old Sesshomaru, his arm in a sling, turned around and looked upon his mother with such cold, emotionless animosity that she slowed to a halt.

"You will not stop this Sesshomaru," he said firmly in a child's voice, though his eyes held no hint of a child's mentality. "I will read what I will and you will not tell me otherwise."

She gazed down upon him quietly. For a long moment they simply stared upon one another, both expressing the same emotionless gaze. Ikuna walked away, leaving her son free to read the human filth. She no longer needed to tell him that human literature was useless. His wound, and the scar it would leave, was enough to give him a life time of hatred towards the human race . . .

Fortunately, at least for her, she was correct . . .

Upon reading the last line of the scroll Sesshomaru placed it down, his eyes narrowed.

_Upon the return of the newly revived samurai from the battlefield he was overjoyed to once again be home in his village. His one wish, to look upon his wife once again with his own eyes, had come true . . . _

_And look upon her once more he did while she lay dressed in white, her skin equally as pale, ready to be buried into the cold, winter ground. _

_In exchange for his own highly coveted life her life had been taken from her in his stead . . . _

Stupid, selfish human . . . all of them were stupid . . . all selfish . . . all worthless.

Sesshomaru looked up at the sun. One final tear made its way down his cheek and fell to the ground.

Even if he had no love for these human creatures, why did it hurt so much to be rejected by them?


End file.
